“In Tar Swan, David Martin has composed a quartet of exuberant and unpredictable voices on an urgent contemporary theme for the age of climate change. The eponymous swan is a ‘single cygnet’ who sings and leaves traces that now ‘drive your cars’ as well as the myths that make the Alberta Tar Sands possible. Martin explores those myths in gritty, sensual, and historically vivid language. This ambitious debut immerses us in the tar of archaeology and the bite of our own environmental dilemma, all with ‘a master’s sprezzatura form.'”
~ Jurors of the 2019 Raymond Souster Award

“Martin’s complex collection criticizes the hubristic development of the tar sands and unearths fixed forms to reckon with environmental change.”
~ Kait Pinder, Canadian Literature“Martin’s troubling of the history of the tar sands in this impressive first poetry collection invites more historical and creative work in this vein.”
~ Melanie Dennis Unrau, The Goose

“This is a remarkable collection…”
~ Anne Burke, The Prairie Journal